THE OBSTACLE TO HOME PRACTICE – EXPECTING CERTAIN EXPERIENCES

Singapore Q&A 19 November 2022 (03:36-07:08) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: When someone feels bored and uninterested with meditation, what should we do?

Sayadaw: They need to understand more about meditation, that the mind has some expectation. Because they cannot get what they want, they become bored.

It depends on your understanding – if you understand the value of the practice, the mind becomes interested. Without enough understanding, it is easy for people to lose interest.

In the beginning, people are interested in meditation because they can get a calm and peaceful mind.

Yogi: When we stop a while and try to restart the practice, it becomes very difficult.

Sayadaw: Because you’re attached to the calmness; so, the next time you meditate with the expectation and you cannot get the calmness, the mind becomes bored. This is nature.

Yogi: So, I have to try and try again.

Sayadaw: It is not to try but to understand the process. People start to meditate because of the good feeling from a calm and concentrated state. That’s when the craving comes. But when you know this process – that boredom and frustration arise from attachment – you’ll not get too attached.

AN INSIGHT INTO KOAN PRACTICE

Singapore Q&A 19 November 2022 with Sayadaw U Tejaniya (26:00-28:10)

The difficulty with Zen practice is that there is not enough information – it is just thinking. Awareness is getting information and when the question arises, the answer comes with experience.

I talked to the Korean yogis – they think about ‘who am I or who is angry?’ There are many koans.

I said ‘you need awareness’ – first, you need to be aware of your body and mind all the time and only then use the question.

When we only practice the koan, we think too much and get a lot of headache. Think, think, think and the head also becomes very tense.

Awareness is information. If you have enough information, when the koan question comes, they match – they work together and it is finished. If they ask the koan when they don’t have the information yet, then the wisdom answer does not arise.

ACKNOWLEDGING THAT THE MIND CAN’T BEAR WITH THE EXPERIENCE

Singapore Q&A 19 November 2022 (31:13-32:10) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

I had a long test at the hospital yesterday – it was difficult.

I only watched that the mind couldn’t bear with it – the reality was that the mind had a tough time bearing with it. When that was seen, the mind could bear with it.

At first, the mind kept going back to thinking when it would end, the expectation for the test to finish.

When I saw that the mind was not peaceful because it didn’t like this situation, I began to be aware of the feeling – then, the mind settled down.

TRAINING THE MIND TO WATCH RESISTANCE AND ATTACHMENT

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 1 (47:10-48:48) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Before we watch the emotions, first we need to know if we’re equanimous to what we’re watching. Are we resisting it – are we afraid of the emotion? Or, are we hoping that it’ll go away?

We need to notice and watch those motivations and feelings first before we actually try to watch the emotions directly. We need to train the mind by watching the wrong attitudes and resistance until the mind feels accepting. And, that’s when we’re ready to watch the emotions.

It is the nature of the mind that when it feels something pleasant, it will attach to it and when it feels something unpleasant, it’ll resist it and our job is to train the mind to watch the resistance and attachment so that we learn how the mind comes to equanimity.

LET AWARENESS BE A PRIORITY IN LIFE

Singapore Q&A 19 November 2022 (08:00-09:25) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: Sayadaw’s teaching is aware, aware and aware. After we’re aware, what should we do next?

Sayadaw: Through awareness, information comes and wisdom can grow slowly.

Yogi: Is there anything that we’ve to do after being aware?

Sayadaw: There is nothing else to do – just recognizing, recognizing and recognizing the mind working. We’re aware and learning about the mind.

Yogi: When I feel bored with the practice, I’ll stop.

Sayadaw: You need to change your attitude first. You now realize that it is easy to be bored when we want something and we cannot get it.

You should just practice being aware and not focus on getting what the mind wants.

USE REMINDING TO PRACTICE IN DAILY LIFE

Singapore Q&A 20 November 2022 (40:30-40:55) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

In our daily activities, often check if our awareness is present or not – doing this is enough.

Check: Is the mind aware? What is the mind aware of? Just reminding in daily life and slowly the nature of awareness will become clearer to you.

IT HELPS IF WE SEE WHICH IS THE CAUSE AND WHICH IS THE EFFECT

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 3 (11:15-14:01) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Sayadaw: Touch your fingers – are the touching and the knowing of the touching separate?

Yogi: Yes.

Sayadaw: So, you know the touching and you also know the knowing of the touching.

Yogi: I should try to stay on the knowing side?

Sayadaw: Ok. But if you know the knowing, you already know what it knows; so, knowing the knowing doesn’t mean you don’t know the touching.

When you know the knowing, touching is already known.

Touching is very clear – all of you can feel the touching sensation, right? First, you pay attention to the touching – now you don’t pay attention to the touching and do you know the knowing?

When there is touching, there is knowing of the touching; when there is no touching, there is no knowing of the touching, right?

FREEDOM TO CHOOSE

Swiss Retreat 2016 Q&A Group B4 (00:36-4:15) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: In my practice, I was taught that I could always choose what I wanted to do, but Sayadaw says that it is the mind which decides what to do – the mind thinks and feels.

Do I have the freedom to decide or does the decision happen because of some mental quality? It seems that I can decide to go with thinking or to be aware of the body.

Sayadaw: Since the ‘I’ is an illusion in the first place, what we’re calling ‘I’ is either defilement deciding or wisdom deciding. When defilement decides, we think that we make an unskillful choice; when wisdom decides, we think that we make the right decision. That’s all.

The sense of freedom comes from the wholesome. When it is the unwholesome that is in charge, we’re almost without choice because they have such a strong hold on us. Unwholesome choices are usually automatic.

TRAIN TO OPEN UP THE AWARENESS IN DAILY LIFE

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 2 (0:50 -3:31) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: I’m used to walking slowly to be aware and find it hard to walk normally, enjoy the view and still be aware.

Sayadaw: Once there is a beautiful view, it is hard to keep your attention at your feet, but it is not about keeping your attention at your feet, it is about being mindful.

So, if you want to look at the view, look, but be aware that you’re looking at the view. Then, you can put some attention at the feet and then back to the view – aware of looking and aware of movement repeatedly.

This is how you will practice if you’re walking to work or anywhere in life – you have to look at the road sign, people on the street and where you’re going and you still want to be mindful. You just have to be aware of looking and be aware of movement repeatedly.

When we’re only aware of our feet and walking, we’ll never get used to how much more mindful we can be in a freer form – it just takes practice. So, please try.

A LITTLE AT A TIME

Singapore Q&A 19 November 2022 with Sayadaw U Tejaniya (38:00-38:16)

Too much teaching is not good – trying to remember one or two advices is enough. When there is too much information, we tend to forget everything.

IS IT NECESSARY TO MOVE WHILE SITTING?

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 2 (24:45-27:28) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: When I sit meditate, I start to move a bit. I don’t know if it’s because I want to move. I cannot figure it out and wonder if it’s better to stop it or just leave it.

Sayadaw: Is it necessary to move while you’re sitting?

There are many reasons why people move in sitting and often the motivations are subtle enough for us not to realize that we’re generating them.

People can move when they are bored in sitting. People also move when they have pain.

Whatever it is, if it is not necessary to move, don’t develop the habit of moving involuntarily or voluntarily while sitting.

There are people who develop these habits that just won’t go away. There are yogis who believe that if they have certain movements, it’s a sign of something. They’ll just keep having that over and over because of a belief.

Yogi: So, next time I start moving, is it better that I stop it?

Sayadaw: When you stop it, you’ll also discover why it wants to move.

SKILLFUL AT PRACTICING

Singapore Q&A 19 November 2022 with Sayadaw U Tejaniya (36:30-37:42)

If the watching mind can be equanimous when observing unpleasant objects or unpleasant situations, it means that the mind is skillful at practice.

For the unskillful mind, when the experience is pleasant, the mind enjoys the experience and when the experience is unpleasant, it resists the experience. In both instances, the mind cannot be detached from the object.

If someone knows how to practice well, the mind can step back and watch regardless of whether the experience is pleasant or unpleasant.

TO PRACTICE AT HOME, MAINTAIN THE MOMENTUM OF AWARENESS

Singapore Q&A 19 November 2022 (09:42-10:28) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: Sayadaw’s teaching is aware, aware and aware. The mind gets bored after a while and I’ll stop practicing at home.

Sayadaw: At home, you need the continuity of practice – that makes the mind settle down. When you don’t have enough practice, when the mind is so messy, how can the mind settle down?

If you practice more continuously at home, it is easier for the mind to calm down; otherwise if the mind is too complicated, it is difficult to meditate because the agitated mind already has a lot of momentum.

If your awareness is weak, how can the mind settle down?

DEALING WITH FEAR

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 1 (12:55-17:45) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: These few weeks I have been living in a state of fear – it is extremely painful and my mind is really agitated.

I tried to bring it into feeling it in the body. Sometimes I managed to do that, but then my mind always jumped back to the thoughts that used the fear. How do I practice with that?

Sayadaw: All of us have fear – it just comes in different ways and different triggers gives us fear. What exactly is it and how does this fear work?

If you see the identification ‘I’m afraid’, you can see that it feels more fearful. If you can separate it, you can see the difference between ‘this is fear’ and ‘I’m afraid’. That helps.

Is there always this fear, moment to moment? Have you noticed it?

Yogi: There are short times when there is less fear.

Sayadaw: Fear is also conditioned – it is there because certain conditions are present. If those conditions aren’t present, fear couldn’t be present.

If you see fear for what it is, that it is not mine, that it is conditioned, then you won’t fear fear so much anymore.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DEFILEMENT JUDGING AND WISDOM JUDGING

Swiss Retreat 2019 Interviews 2 (1:02:49-1:04:30) with Sayadaw U Tejaniya

Yogi: You say not to judge but to accept everything. But you also say to look at what is wholesome and what is not wholesome. Isn’t that judging?

Sayadaw: You know the difference between something wholesome and unwholesome – that is not what I mean to judge. What I mean to judge is that the mind is not accepting it.

If the mind is differentiating something, but it accepts that this is how it is, that’s fine.

And if it is not accepting it, you know that the mind is not accepting it – that is all.